During the holiday season, many people set up real and/or artificial Christmas trees in their homes for both decorative and religious purposes. The Christmas trees often vary in height and size, creating varying degrees of difficulty in supporting the trees in a stable position. Other people purchase or rent other types of trees, umbrellas, tiki torches, or other pole-type items for special events and occasions and/or everyday use or enjoyment. In these cases as well, it is difficult to support these items in a stable manner. Often, the result is that the trees, umbrellas, poles, or other items are either leaned against a wall or propped up in some other unstable way. This lack of a proper support device can lead to a number of unwanted consequences. A tree or umbrella falling from an unstable position can cause not only property damage but can also cause physical harm to a person. Likewise, a falling tiki torch or a pole-type item with a candle or other lit object on top could ignite a fire.
Previous attempts have been made to provide a support device for Christmas trees. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,655 issued to Freeman discloses a Christmas tree resting inside a collar member having a radial extension and a rod between the tree and the radial extension. The Freeman patent requires the attachment of a rod to a portion of the tree with set screws, a time-consuming and difficult process. The setting up of the rod assembly is a time-consuming and difficult process. Further, while natural, cut Christmas trees typically have trunks with flat bottom surfaces due to where they have been cut, the aforementioned pole-type members may lack flat bottom surfaces, particularly in instances where they are adapted to be staked into the ground, and would be prone to slipping in a support device like that of Freeman.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,246 issued to Idso. Idso discloses a stand for Christmas trees comprised of a base plate with a pair of spaced-apart upright brackets mounted thereon. The tree holder receptacle is pivotally mounted between the upright brackets so that it can move about a horizontal axis in order to orient the tree trunk to a generally vertical position. A pair of locking levers is associated with the upright brackets so that they can be releasably clamped to orient the tree holder receptacle in any desired position. A set screw is provided to accept the tree into the tree holder receptacle. Adjusting the set screw and the pair of locking levers in order to properly position the tree trunk is a time-consuming and difficult process.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a pole-type member support device which is of simplified construction, inexpensive to manufacture, simple to install, and that can securely hold Christmas trees and/or pole-type members of various diameters. The pole-type member support device would hold Christmas trees and/or a pole-type member in a fixed position for an extended period of time and which does not require the use of screw type locking devices to hold the Christmas trees and/or pole-type members in an upright position. It would thus be desirable to provide a pole-type member support device that addresses the aforementioned shortcomings of existing devices.